Rabbit with Cabbage Rolls

Trim rabbit and remove backbone and tendons. Chop tendons and backbone. Cut bacon into large pieces, place with tendons and bones into a large pot and fry 5 minutes. Peel onion and carrot, trim and dice both. Add prepared vegetables to the pot and continue cooking for 3 minutes. Add juniper berries, peppercorns, red wine and a little salt. Simmer everything over low heat uncovered for 40 minutes.

Remove outer leaves from the cabbage. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and blanch cabbage for 5 minutes then rinse with cold water. Drain chestnuts. Peel apples, cut into quarters, remove core and dice. Melt half of butter in a pan, add apples, sugar, cinnamon and cloves, sauté 3 minutes and season with salt. Add chestnuts and mix well.

Divide cabbage into individual leaves, remove thick ribs and place four 4 cabbage leaves on a work surface overlapping. Spoon some apple-chestnut mixture onto cabbage leaves, fold in sides, roll cabbage leaves around filling and tie with kitchen twine. Continue process for remaining cabbage and apple-chest nut mixture. Pour rabbit broth through a sieve into a pot, place cabbage rolls in the pot, cover and simmer for 10 minutes.